NFH 03 Checkmate (38 page)

If she thought that Andrew was lazy before
then she’d been dead wrong. Over the past couple of weeks the man
had given a whole new meaning to the term lazy. He was constantly
late, left early most days, hung out in the parking lot every
couple of hours and several times he’d been found asleep in his
truck or on the site. It was also becoming painfully obvious that
the man had a substance abuse problem. He was seen vomiting several
times, having the shakes, sweating profusely after one of his many
trips to the parking lot and he’d lost a great deal of weight.

Instead of firing him like any other boss
would have done, Connor turned a blind eye to his best friend’s
downward spiral. They’d actually gotten into a few arguments over
it, but no matter what she said, Connor wouldn’t fire his friend.
The only concession that he was willing to give her was that Andrew
would not be touching any power tools. It wasn’t much and she
wasn’t happy about it, but she’d take it.

For now.

The moment Andrew became a danger he was
gone. She didn’t care if he worked for her or not. She was not
about to put her men in danger to make Connor happy. As much as she
cared about him, and she knew that she was in love with him, she
couldn’t keep turning a blind eye to this situation. She was very
much afraid that Andrew was going to end up killing himself and she
was terrified that it would destroy Connor. It didn’t matter that
she didn’t particularly like Andrew, she loved Connor and this
situation was hurting him. She could see it in his face every time
he watched Andrew stumble, drop something, or head for the parking
lot.

“
And now it’s yours,” Connor
said, his tone hard, leaving no doubt in her mind that it wasn’t up
for discussion. Bryce seemed to pick up on the hint as well,
because with one last glare, he stormed out of the office, slamming
the door behind him hard enough to shake the trailer.

“
Connor, we need to talk,”
she said, hoping against hope that this time he would
listen.

“
Tonight, okay?” he said
softly, looking miserable and tired and heaven help her, but she
didn’t want to make him feel worse so she did something that she
knew she would regret later.

She dropped it.

Chapter 33

August

“
Stop doing that! We have to
go!” Rory said, giggling as she tried to crawl out of his arms and
off the bed, but the woman was laughing too hard to be able to put
up much of an effort.

“
No, we don’t, baby. We can
tell your brothers that you’re too sick to go. Then we can spend
the first free weekend that we’ve had in two months, in bed doing
nothing more than eating, sleeping and making you scream my name,”
he said, pulling a very amused Rory back away from the edge of the
bed and in his arms.

She let out an indelicate snort at that. “I
have never screamed your name!’ she said, lying her hot little ass
off.

“
Really?” he asked in an
offhand tone as he managed to get his right arm beneath her and
wrapped it around her, pulling her back against his chest and
keeping her there as he used his other hand to tickle her until she
was thrashing in his arms and laughing so hard that she could
barely choke out his name.

“
You bastard!” she gasped,
still laughing a minute later when he stopped tickling
her.

“
Yes, I am,” he said,
chuckling as he shifted back just far enough so that Rory could
turn over onto her back.

As soon as her back touched the comforter
she was reaching for him. With her fingers threaded through his
short hair, she pulled him down for one of her greedy little kisses
that he loved. Her throaty moan as he slid his tongue against hers
had his cock jerking and his balls aching, but he ignored them
because making Rory fall apart in his arms was one of the most
pleasurable experiences that he’d ever had with a woman.

He loved touching her, loved the way she
trembled against him, the way her breaths became uneven as she
struggled to hold off coming for one more minute so that she could
enjoy his touch a little while longer. He would never get enough of
her, he decided as he skimmed his hand down her flat belly and
between her legs, his groan merging with hers when his fingers
slicked through her folds and found her dripping wet. Using the tip
of his finger, he traced her core once, twice before he slid his
finger inside and found her sheath tight. She wasn’t going to last
long, but that was okay, because they didn’t have much time.

“
Connor,” she moaned softly
against his lips as he slid his finger slowly inside
her.

When he felt her reach for him, he shook his
head, only breaking off the kiss long enough to say, “No, baby,
just lie back and enjoy this.”

After a slight hesitation, he felt her melt
back into the mattress. She wrapped her good arm around his
shoulder, holding him close as he slid a second finger inside her.
When she gasped into his mouth he knew that she was on the brink
and he wished that he could lay here with her and take his time
making her feel good, but they didn’t have much time.

He twisted his hand so that he could caress
that little nub that he loved to flick his tongue over and rubbed
it with short teasing circles. Rory’s nails dug into his shoulders
and her breaths quickened. She pushed down on his fingers and he
allowed it, taking the hint that she wanted it harder so he gave it
to her. By the time he felt her sheath throb and squeeze around his
fingers he was ready to explode. He held off as long as he could,
but when she started to scream his name he lost it.

Keeping his fingers inside of her, he broke
off the kiss and sat up, sitting back, damn careful not to
interrupt her orgasm as he took himself in hand. He watched Rory
burst apart, her back arching as she licked her lips hungrily. The
grip on his cock tightening as he stroked himself faster, his eyes
never leaving her beautiful face.

When she opened her eyes and looked up at
him a shot of pleasure surged through him, tightening his balls and
intensifying the pleasure with each stroke. She was so damn
beautiful, sweet, feisty, but it was the fact that it was Rory
looking up at him that turned him inside out and made his heart
skip a beat.

“
I love you, Rory,” he said,
struggling not to close his eyes as his spine tingled and he felt
intense pleasure as his orgasm worked its way to his
cock.

Rory didn’t say that she loved him. She
never did, but instead her walls clamped down around his fingers as
a second, more powerful orgasm tore through her, setting off his
own. He forced his eyes to remain open, too greedy to miss this. He
watched her scream his name again, enjoying every last second of it
as it intensified his own orgasm. It wasn’t as good as being inside
of her, but it would have to do until he could manage to get her
alone again.

“
We have to get going,” Rory
said, struggling to catch her breath as she sat up.

Unfortunately, she was right. With a nod and
a quick kiss, he climbed off the bed, taking her with him.
Together, they walked into the shower, only pausing long enough to
enjoy a leisurely kiss. He helped cover her cast with a plastic bag
before they climbed into the shower and quickly washed up. He’d
just pulled her back into his arms when the banging on the bedroom
door started, again.

“
We gave you a half an hour!
Move your asses!” Sean yelled, making them both groan as he reached
for the shower knob and turned off the water.

“
Let’s stay here, Rory. I
was serious about spending the weekend in bed with you,” he said,
knowing that even if they stayed that he wouldn’t be able to spend
the entire weekend in bed with her.

Andrew was getting worse and he didn’t know
what he should do. There was no one that he could turn to and no
one to share this burden with. He’d promised to keep his mouth shut
and that’s exactly what he was going to do even as it was slowly
killing him inside. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep
this up. Every day was like a brand new level of hell. If only
Andrew wasn’t so hell bent about being stubborn, but the bastard
wouldn’t even listen to him or take a chance for him. That asshole
was dying and he wouldn’t even take a fucking chance. God help him,
but Connor hated him for it.

“
What’s wrong?” Rory asked
softly, reaching up and ran her fingers down his jaw, instantly
calming him.

“
Nothing’s wrong,” he lied,
turning his head and pressed a kiss against the tips of her fingers
as they moved down his jaw. He wished he could tell her what was
going on, ease some of his own pain, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t
do that to her and he wouldn’t break the asinine promise that he
made to Andrew. He owed his friend that much at least.

“
If you’re not ready in ten
minutes we’re coming in!” Johnny yelled, making Rory roll her eyes
and forced him to bite back a groan at the reminder that he
promised to spend an entire day with Rory’s brothers and the rest
of her extended family.

Oh, joy.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like her cousins,
he actually did. He’d only met a dozen of them so far, but all of
them were pretty good guys. They were arrogant as hell and some of
them liked to call him the “pretty boy”, which he thought was a bit
screwed up since he hadn’t met one single Bradford that couldn’t
pass for a GQ model. Then again, being called pretty boy was a hell
of lot better than being referred to as the cry baby. He hadn’t
cried and every time he pointed that out he earned pitying looks
and condescending remarks.

Bastards.

The problem was actually Rory’s brothers and
father. Since news of their engagement spread like wildfire all
over town, her father hadn’t said one single word to him, not one.
Not that the man was normally a chatter box, but the way he watched
his every move when he didn’t think that Connor was looking was a
bit eerie. He just wasn’t sure that he could deal with the glares
for a whole day when he barely survived it for five hours fishing
every Sunday.

Her brothers were a whole other problem. He
really wished that they would cut the shit and kick his ass and get
it over with already. Their murderous glares and bullshit warnings
about watching his back were getting tiresome. They sent him text
warnings at all hours of the day. When they were fishing or didn’t
want Rory and their father to hear what they were saying, they
whispered their warnings or mouthed their threats. They even went
so far as to send him drinks when he was at the bar just so they
could write down exactly what they wanted to do to him on a
cocktail napkin using stick figure illustrations to explain it
better just in case he missed the fact that they were dying to kick
his ass.

The only thing that wasn’t clear to him was
why they hadn’t kicked his ass. They were obviously dying to kick
his ass. He just didn’t know what was stopping them. If he wasn’t
so damn worried about Andrew, getting this project finished and
trying not to screw this up with Rory, he would probably try and
find out, but right now he just didn’t have the time or energy to
really care.

“
You better not be touching
our sister, asshole!” Bryce yelled, sounding close to killing
someone.

“
Go away! We’ll be down in
twenty minutes!” Rory yelled back, sounding aggravated as she
stormed into her room and he really couldn’t blame her.

When her brothers weren’t trying to warn him
off, they were harassing the hell out of Rory as they tried to talk
some sense into her. It wasn’t working. At least, he hoped that it
wasn’t working. He didn’t want to lose her, not now, not when he
was a mere three months away from making her his.

She was marrying him. Rory James was going
to marry him and he couldn’t wait. He knew that if they finished
the project tomorrow that she’d marry him. It killed him to have to
wait, but he wasn’t going to rush this and screw everything up. She
needed him to prove to her that he loved her and he would do just
that, but the moment that the project was over, she was marrying
him.

“
We need to get going,
because the faster that we get dressed, the faster we can put some
space between us and my brothers for a few hours,” Rory said, not
sounding any happier than he was about spending the day with her
family.

“
Okay, baby. I’ll go get
dressed,” he said, giving up on trying to talk her out of going and
heading for her patio.

“
You really should just
leave some stuff here, Connor,” Rory pointed out with a shrug as
she pulled on a pair of light gray lacy panties which he’d really
like to tear off with his teeth, but unfortunately for him, they
didn’t have time.

He cursed softly as he watched Rory continue
to get dressed. He’d been avoiding this kind of thing since he
decided to drop the subject of selling her house. Truth be told,
he’d been hoping to avoid talking about this sort of thing until
after they were married and it was time to move her into his house
and stake a “For Sale” sign in her front yard.

“
I’ll think about it,” he
said, hoping the vague answer would be enough for her to drop
it.

“
Okay,” she said with
another careless shrug as she focused on pulling a shirt on,
reminding him why he loved this woman so damn much. There was no
drama, no pouting, no whining to get her way. She hated that
bullshit almost as much as him, and that made him breathe a little
easier because he knew when it came time for her to make some
changes that she would do them without a problem. Rory was a smart
girl, she’d realize that selling her house and merging her business
with his would be the smart thing to do.